NEW YORK, July 10, 2026, 11:24 (EDT)
MARA Holdings, Inc. NASDAQ:MARA dropped 5.5% to $12.49 in late-morning Nasdaq trade Friday. Shares gave back about 61% of Thursday’s 10% gain as investors considered an SEC filing that set the Texas project-company buyout ceiling at $600 million.
The big capital number here is $2.1 billion. If you put the Texas max together with MARA’s planned $1.5 billion Long Ridge acquisition, the total headline deal value comes to about 44% of MARA’s $4.75 billion market cap. That’s before taking future Matagorda construction into account. This isn’t all due right away—Long Ridge has assumed debt built in, and the Texas payments are linked to hitting development milestones.
Matagorda is a focused play. The site’s planned 2,000 MW makes up 41.7% of the 4,800 MW MARA expects in its portfolio after everything is up and running, including Long Ridge. The goal is to serve high-performance computing like AI and other heavy US data-center work. So far, MARA says only that tenants are interested, with 1,000 MW hoped for in October 2027 and all 2,000 MW by April 2028.
But power rights aren’t the same as rent. Compass Point analysts Michael Donovan and Ed Engel wrote Thursday that companies holding AI data-center assets should get landlord-style valuations, splitting off signed leases from projects that still don’t have customers. Using that logic, Matagorda is still just inventory under development, not an asset producing income.
MARA’s two biggest announced power deals are at different stages in that cycle:
| Project | Status and timing | Power and site scale | Headline consideration | Economics disclosed |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Matagorda, Texas | Closed on the project July 2. Full power seen in April 2028. | Up to 2,000 MW, site covers over 1,200 acres | Could reach $600 million, based on milestones | No tenant lease details out |
| Long Ridge, Ohio | Deal waiting; close set for H2 2026 | 505 MW gas plant, site may top 1,000 MW | $1.5 billion, includes debt | Annualized adjusted EBITDA about $144 million |
Adjusted EBITDA is the company’s preferred profit metric before interest, tax, depreciation, amortization and certain other items. The figure takes Long Ridge’s second-half 2025 performance and projects it for the full year.
The Texas price isn’t paid upfront; it’s staged. The deal includes several milestones tied to regulatory sign-offs, securing land, power authorization, and a third-party data center lease. If all targets are hit, the purchase comes to $300,000 per planned MW for the project-company stake, before any campus buildout—which MARA hasn’t broken out yet. The full contract will be in the third-quarter filing.
Friday, MARA trailed bitcoin and two other listed mining stocks:
| Asset | Price or index level | Day move |
|---|---|---|
| MARA Holdings | $12.49 | -5.5% |
| Riot Platforms, Inc. NASDAQ:RIOT | $20.79 | -3.3% |
| CleanSpark, Inc. NASDAQ:CLSK | $12.56 | -2.6% |
| Bitcoin | $64,068 | +1.6% |
| Nasdaq Composite | 26,106.50 | -0.38% |
Stocks and bitcoin levels were checked between 11:09 and 11:24 a.m. EDT. The Nasdaq figure was recorded at 10:58 a.m.
TeraWulf Inc. NASDAQ:WULF stands out for its contract terms. The company just landed a 20-year lease with Anthropic, tied to about 401 MW and nearly $19 billion in potential revenue. CEO Paul Prager called it a “long-duration revenue stream.” MARA’s Texas site is bigger in planned capacity, but doesn’t have this kind of customer locked in yet. TeraWulf Inc.
MARA sees potential value in power before rent kicks in. Chairman and CEO Fred Thiel said “reliable, scalable power will become increasingly valuable” at their sites. HIF USA CEO Renato Pereira said the company had issued a “Notice to Proceed” for switchyard work—a move toward hooking up to the grid, but not a clear sign tenants are lined up. MARA
MARA has ways to raise capital, but they come with downsides. At March 31, the company reported $513.7 million in cash and $2.4 billion worth of bitcoin, set against roughly $2.4 billion in debt. There was also $1.5 billion left under an at-the-market program to sell shares directly. Its Starwood deal allows for non-recourse project debt, meaning the project backs the borrowing, not MARA itself, if a qualifying tenant signs on. In the first quarter, MARA sold 20,880 bitcoin for $1.5 billion, putting its crypto stack to work as a funding source.
The plan still faces hurdles. Rules could drag, tenants might not sign, and a falling bitcoin price could cut the value of MARA’s crypto holdings. There’s also the risk of money parked in land and grid deals with no rent coming in, which could mean selling more bitcoin or issuing shares. For now, investors are watching for a real tenant deal, released lease terms and proof that the first 1,000 MW gets delivered on time—more than any new gigawatt headline.
Related articles: NASDAQ:MARA
